Penthouse view

Bernard Madoff's penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City. The U.S. Marshals Service plans to put the 4,000-square-foot duplex, a Palm Beach, Fla., estate, a yacht and two smaller boats up for sale in the hopes of raising tens of millions of dollars to help reimburse victims of Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
(Mary Altaffer / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Spacious dining

Scene of the crime

Madoff's office in the New York apartment. The home office has a leather couch, paintings of sailboats and a sculpture of a bull, a favorite Madoff motif, on a coffee table. There's also the desk where authorities said they found 100 checks worth $173 million that Madoff was ready to send out to close relatives and friends after he realized he would be caught.
(Mary Altaffer / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Bullish motif

Florida seclusion

A large banyan tree in the front yard of Bernard Madoff's Palm Beach, Fla., home. The house, which will be sold at auction, is tucked into a secluded, palm-lined lot with a stunning view to the west across the Intracoastal Waterway.
(J Pat Carter / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Water view

A telescope points out towards the Florida Intercoastal waterway, where Madoff would have been able to see his boats at a 100-foot private dock overlooking a chevron-shaped pool with a Jacuzzi at one end.
(J Pat Carter / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Palm Beach living

Close to the sea

The 1.2-acre lot in Montauk, New York sits closer to the surf than larger neighboring homes on the southeastern tip of Long Island.
(Robert Mecea / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Room with a view

This is a view of the living room of the house of Bernard Madoff in Montauk, New York. A staircase descends to the living room with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams and a stone fireplace.
(Robert Mecea / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Dinner for eight

The dining table has a view of the ocean. At 3,014 square feet, the home is cottage-size by superrich standards.
(Robert Mecea / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

NEW YORK — It boasts ocean views, an infamous former owner — and now a buyer willing to pay more than $8.75 million.

An unidentified would-be buyer or buyers snapped up Bernard Madoff’s Long Island beach house within days after the U.S. Marshals Service put the seized property up for sale, a spokeswoman for the broker the Corcoran Group said Thursday.

Spokeswoman Anne Lacombe said the fallen money manager’s Montauk retreat was under contract for more than its $8.75 million asking price. She didn’t have the exact figure, any information on the intended buyer or the closing date.

U.S. Marshal Joseph R. Guccione said in a statement the potential buyer’s identity and price were being kept private to protect a deal that has yet to close.

The Marshals Service put the 3,000-square-foot house on the market Sept. 1 to help repay victims of Madoff’s massive investment fraud.

The listing attracted an onslaught of responses and numerous bids, Lacombe said. She said the highest bid was taken.

Madoff’s notoriety “made it come to a lot of people’s attention, but it’s really all about the location of the views and the home,” she said.

The four-bedroom house is set on a 1.2-acre lot amid the dunes in Montauk, a windswept beach community east of the Hamptons. The house is modest by Hamptons standards, but it boasts stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean and sits closer to the surf than zoning laws now allow.

“These kind of properties are very rare,” Lacombe said.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that encompassed thousands of investors and billions of dollars.

His punishment included a forfeiture order that stripped him and his wife, Ruth, of nearly all their wealth. The order gave the marshals authority to seize and sell the Madoffs’ homes.

Their Manhattan penthouse, listed at $9.9 million, has drawn several seriously interested potential buyers, said Anne Corey, the Sotheby’s International Realty broker representing that property.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the Montauk home after the theft of a $300 sculpture off the front porch late last week, Newsday reported. The East Hampton Town police didn’t immediately return a telephone call about the theft Thursday.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.